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Police are searching for the owner of the house where a large arms cache was found today, in the Free State, after receiving a tip-off. Construction workers had stumbled on the buckets of ammunition, under a heap of soil.

The new owner was not in possession of the house keys at the time of the search, forcing police to break in to search the house. A police raid netted thousands of rounds of shotgun ammunition, 1200 litres of petrol; medical supplies; canned food and other basic supplies, stockpiled in the house.

"A case docket of the possession of ammunition will be opened by Sasolburg Police Station and the owners are also going to be traced and arrested because he or she is not supposed to be in possession of that amount of ammunition," says Constable Peter Kareli.

When police called the owner, she gave them the run around. "Where there is smoke there should be fire. We found ammunition and we are going to ask the owner of the house where the firearms which were going to be used by him or her are," says Kareli.

He believes that one cannot have ammunition and not have firearms.

Earlier, it was feared there could be explosives too. Sniffer dogs combed the crime scene. Police will also investigate if the suspect acted alone. "I suspect that there could be a syndicate. Not just one person because I believe that a single person cannot get a hold of so much ammunition by themselves," says Investigating Officer, Thekiso Serobe.

At this stage, it is also unclear whether the woman was part of a doomsday cult.